


A version of aversion to medical

by Celticas



Series: Trope Bingo [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M, Medical, trope bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2021-01-03 12:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21179237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celticas/pseuds/Celticas
Summary: Clint sat slumped outside Phil’s office door. He could go in and talk to his handler, and boyfriend, or he could go home and hide. Neither option was appealing. So instead, here he sat. In limbo.





	A version of aversion to medical

Clint sat slumped outside Phil’s office door. He could go in and talk to his handler, and boyfriend, or he could go home and hide. Neither option was appealing. So instead, here he sat. In limbo. Unable to make a single decision about where he wanted to mope. Overall, sitting in the corridor at SHIELD wasn’t the best choice. It wasn’t even an ok choice. It was, in fact, a stupid fucking choice. Someone was going to come along at some point and ask what he was doing. Or Phil was going to leave his office and see that Clint had been lurking outside like a creeper. Although Phil already knew Clint was a creeper, he had spent months stalking him from air vents afterall.

Knowing all of that, didn’t stop him from sitting there. Lost in thought he missed the door next to him opening. The pressure of a shoulder against his own, was unmissable though.

“Clint.” Phil started in a sad voice, the use of his first name a strong signal that this was a personal conversation, not an ‘I am your boss and you need to do what I say’ conversation.

“No.” Clint already knew what he was going to say. He was going to talk about how you need to allow yourself to forgive, and that he would regret it if he didn’t say goodbye. Clint didn’t care. He had been hurt enough times by people who were meant to be there to protect him. He wasn’t going to set himself up for failure again.

“Ok.” Phil wasn’t going to force it, not right now anyway. If the reports from the doctors didn’t start getting better, he would reconsider.

“You know our history.” Clint said quietly, breaking the uneasy hush that only fell at SHIELD in the early hours of the morning. “Why should I even care? You and Nat are all the family I need.”

Phil had to bite his tongue to keep the platitudes in, the useless words that wouldn’t really fix anything. He thought Clint would regret not being there for Barney. Not because  _ Barney _ deserved it, but because  _ Clint _ did. He deserved the closure that would come out of it, the draining of a wound that would never heal otherwise.

“It’s not about caring about him.” He finally settled on, slowly putting the words out there.

“Can we just go home?” Clint asked, eyes focused on where he was picking at the bed of a fingernail. Voice smaller.

“Of course.” Phil levered himself off the floor first, needing the support of the wall to get himself up. He was getting older and couldn’t shake off the deep bruising he had suffered from in the last mission as well as he once could have.

Once upright, he offered a helping hand to get Clint up. He had been thrown around even more than Phil, and had been sitting on the cool, hard floor for a lot longer. He would be surprised if the archer could move in the morning to be honest.

Clint accepted the help, using Phil’s weight as a counter balance. Side by side, they left SHIELD. Clint shambling a bit as he worked warmth back into his legs, while Phil could have been holding in his own intestines and he would have still walked the same sure-footed stride of Senior Agent Coulson.

= + =

Clint woke after only a few hours of sleep, his mind too full to let him rest. He lay in the half dark of their bedroom staring at the ceiling. The weight and warmth of Phil against his side the only thing keeping him where he was. He understood where Phil was coming from, he knew he would regret it if he didn’t go and see Barney and something happened, but the hurt little brother who had woken up in the hospital to find himself abandoned by the only family he had had left was asking why he had to be the bigger person? Why, for once, couldn’t he be the petty one?

A chirping from Phil’s side of the bed pulled the other man from sleep. A hand appeared from below a pillow and scooped the offending item up from the wood. Phil cleared the sleep from his voice before answering.

“Yes?” “Mhm.” “Ok. Thank you.” The glass and plastic skittered across the wood, coming to a stop at the base of the bedside lamp.

Phil turned over to join Clint at staring at the ceiling.

“He’s getting worse.”

“Yes.” Phil answered, even though it hadn’t really been a question.

“Will you come with me?” He still didn’t want to, but with Phil at his back he might just manage it.

= + =

Clint stood just out of the way of the wide swinging doors that separated the Medical section of SHIELD from the rest of the floor. It was approaching Midday and a steady flow of people were moving through the doors. 

He had stalled though. Fuck. It. He wasn’t going. Sharply he twisted around to go to the range instead. Shooting at paper targets that had never done anything to him might make him feel better. He didn’t get far. Thumping up against a solid form almost immediately.

“No, Barton. You’re not running away from this.” It was Phil and he wasn’t letting him past.

He wrapped a hand around Clint’s wrist, gently tugging him towards and then through the doors. He led Clint between people, moving into the quieter areas of the floor. The areas that were coated in an anticipatory hush. A held breath. It was where the people who they couldn’t do anything more for were put. Where they were tucked away waiting to die.

It wasn’t a good sign that they had moved Barney there. That he wasn’t in the heart of the chaos. That a single nurse sat vigil in the corridor, instead of a swarm of doctors fighting for his brother’s life.

Phil pushed him through a door.

“Hey.” Barney coughed.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm over on [Tumblr](https://quartzcelticas.tumblr.com/), and will be announcing somethings over there in the next day or so. So come over and say 'hi'.  
Attn: The Marvel Trumps Hate Auctions finish soon. Make sure to check it out.


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